The Scottish Naturalist. 213 



present quarters. The Rev. Dr Porteous strongly expresses his 

 opinion of the foreign nativity of Gemmell's specimen.^ 



A policeman at Leadhills, named Benzie, picked up a piece of 

 gold-quartz there ; but, as in Gemmell's case, there is no proof 

 of its belonging to the rocks of the district. 



Even in a district in which gold is well known by sight, and in 

 which the miners are shrewd and sagacious, there are individuals, 

 not miners, who are misled by the yellow metallic appearance of 

 certain baser ores into the belief that they are gold. Of this I 

 had an example in the man who drove me, in July last, across 

 the hills from Sanquhar to Abington ; an intelligent man, ac- 

 quainted both with the district, and with the leading miners and 

 their gold-finds. Among the minerals displayed in the windows 

 of Mr James Aitchison, aforesaid, were some iron pyrites, which 

 were pronounced to be gold by the driver in question.^ 



My general conclusions concerning the Crawford-Lindsay gold- 

 field and its possible auriferous produce are the following : — 



1. There is ample evidence — quite as ample as that furnished 

 by Sutherland in 1869, and by New Zealand in 186 1-2, in regard 

 to their respective gold-fields and their richness in gold — that the 

 district in question is a veritable gold-field. 



2. The evidence, however, which is perfectly satisfactory as 

 regards surface or alluvial gold, is far from being equally so as 

 concerns auriferous quartz, in situ. 



3. But not even as regards stream gold has the capacity of the 

 district been in any way properly tested or proved. In modern 

 times there has been no proper working of the surface deposits, 

 on a large scale and in a systematic way ; none of a kind that is 

 entitled to be considered more than dilettante or amateur. 



4. Still less is there any means at present of judging of the 

 extent or richness of the auriferous reefs of the district. 



5. I have no doubt that even the same amount and kind of 

 work — by competent gold-finders and diggers — as was expended 

 upon Kildonan, would bring out results quite as favourable as did 



* 



1 In his (i) 'God's Treasure-House,' pp. 54, 55 ; and in the (2) 'Dumfries 

 Herald ' of April 4, 1877. 



^ I have given an account of the egregious mistakes that have been made 

 in regarding iron pyrites, mica, or other gold-like minerals, as gold in (i) 

 ' The Transactions of the Geological Societies of Edin., 1870, and Dublin, 1871, 

 under the head of the ' Lomond Diggings of 1852 ;' and in (2) 'The Northern 

 Ensign' of July 1869, in connection with the Sutherland Diggings of that 

 year, 



C 



